New Friends, Old Problems
by SweetChi
Summary: Cat and Bones end up in Shreveport with a pack of ghouls on their tail.


Written for LJ's 2011 Wishlist  
>Requested By: Vesselandpestle<br>Fandoms: Southern Vampire Mysteries/Night Huntress Series  
>Characters: Bones, Cat, Eric, Sookie<br>Prompt: It's nice meeting Bones' friends. Especially ones that have no interest in her blood or body. Bones takes Cat to meet Eric, who is already completely taken with Sookie (who is oblivious).

**New Friends, Old Problems**

The music wasn't loud enough, the décor was bland and the place was filled with wanna-be vampires. Fan-fucking-tastic. When Bones had said he was going to meet with a contact, this hadn't been what Cat had been expecting. If she'd known they were going to some bar where groupies drooled over vamps, she would've passed on joining him.

To make things worse, it was packed inside. They'd had a rough couple of days and she was feeling a little twitchy. As her eyes scanned the place again for danger, she caught sight of a frat boy groveling at the feet of blond vampire by the bar. The vampire looked as disgusted as Cat felt though, and shoved him away with a booted foot to the shoulder and a snarl, making Cat smirk.

"Pam can be right nasty when a human invades her personal space," Bones said beside her, nodding at the blond. "Always made me wonder why Eric wanted her around in these bar ventures of his."

As the man scurried away and another took his place, Cat shook her head. "They don't seem to mind. In fact, I think they like it."

"I guess it does all depend on whose kicking your arse," he said with a slow grin that made heat flood through her. "I remember a time when I looked forward to seeing you even when you hated me."

The heat was immediately replaced with guilt. He wasn't exaggerating - she really had hated him. Even after part of her was attracted to him, she'd still hated what he _was_. She'd been raised to hate vampires and he'd gotten the brunt of that abhorrence. Well, really the vamps she killed got the brunt of it, but he got the verbal end of it.

"Yeah, but I could never kick your ass," she said, wanting to move past the old memories of mistakes and time lost. He knew she was sorry, how she felt now, there wasn't any reason for her to say it again.

"Not for a lack of trying though, luv," he said with an easygoing wink. He always looked back on that time with fond amusement. He'd gotten what he wanted in the end, after all - her.

"So, how do you know this guy again?" She asked as they maneuvered themselves through the crowd. She knew this Eric guy they were coming to see had to be there, she could feel the hum of power from him as soon as they'd come in.

"Met him in Russia. Picking off Napoleon's men as they retreated from Moscow."

"So he's around your age?"

"Older. A lot older."

"Older than Mencheres?"

Bones snorted. "No, Mencheres is older than dirt. Eric isn't quite that ancient. He was a Viking - so about a thousand or so. But he lived those thousand hard. He's cunning and dangerous as hell. But he's seen so much he's pretty much fearless, not really a characteristic I usually admire – everyone needs a healthy dose of fear - but given the reason we're here…"

"Gotcha," Cat said with a nod. They needed someone a little on the crazy end of the sanity scale right now.

As they cleared the thickest part of the crowd, she finally saw Eric. Seated at a booth toward the back, he was sprawled lazily across the seat like he'd been posed by a fashion photographer. His button down shirt was open too far, revealing a lot of toned, pale chest and his blond hair almost glowed in the dim light of the bar. Her first thought was, _Why do all of Bones friends have to be so damned good-looking?_She thought after spending so much time with Bones himself, plus Spade, Ian and Mancheres, she would've gotten used to beauty by now. But the big, blond Viking studying her with icy blue eyes actually managed to stun her into silence.

He didn't even seem to notice though, letting his eyes flick past her after a moments study to something further off in the crowd behind her. Instead of being insulted, it was actually a huge relief. It seemed like more often than not new acquaintances were more interested in her body or her blood than anything else. Being disregarded was kind of welcome.

Pulling his eyes back to Bones, Eric slid out of the booth silently and smoothly, showing a grace no one that size would possess naturally.

"Eric," Bones nodded, stepping forward and a little in front of Cat. She raised a mental eyebrow. Was he being his usual overprotective self or did he actually thing Eric was a threat to her…

"Bones," Eric nodded back. His eyes traveled over Bones once, then over Cat, then ticked back toward whatever he'd been looking at before. Curious, she followed his gaze. He seemed to be watching the blond vampire from earlier. She was still sitting at the bar, but instead of kicking frat boys she was now talking to a busty human that stood out because of her complete normality. She was wearing jeans, a sweater and a blue coat - no leather, no fake fangs, no spiked, colored hair, no half fearful half excited look. She was simply talking to the vampire.

"Kitten, this is Eric," Bones said, drawing her attention back to reason they were there.

"Kitten, was it?" Eric asked with a smirk.

"Cat, actually," she answered. "He's the only one that gets to call me Kitten. And live anyway."

Eric let out a bark of laugher and sat back in his seat. "I like her, Bones. You needed someone to keep you in line."

"Same could be said of you. Found her yet?" Bones asked, his voice light but his eyes shrewd as they shifted toward the bar knowingly. Apparently he'd already picked up on something Cat had missed, not that that was anything new.

Eric's expression turned to something darker and less amused before he covered it up with his blasé mask once again. "As if anyone could ever keep me in line."

"Too true…" Bones muttered shaking his head and letting the topic drop. "So, I hate to drop in on like this but-"

"You need a favor," Eric guessed, adopting a wounded expression. "You don't call, you don't write, you just drop in when you need something. I'm hurt Bones."

"I believe you were the one that told me to keep my arse out of your bar the last time I came by."

"That's because you had three assassins on your tail. Running a place like this is expensive enough without having to replace all the tables, the liquor and fix fire damage."

"Hey, I paid for that."

"You did, and you will again if your bring trouble back my way," he said, but despite his words, he didn't look too worried. "So what is it you need?"

"We're having a bit of trouble with Marie. There's been a slight… misunderstanding," Bones said with a shrug. "And she's been sending ghouls after us. We could use a little help while we get this straightened out."

"You've crossed Marie Laveau and you've come here for assistance?"

"I know perfectly well you aren't scared by Marie, mate," Bones said with a slight smile. And from Eric's unruffled expression, he truly wasn't shocked or worried by this announcement. Cat couldn't imagine _anyone_ meeting Marie and _not _being scared of her. At least not anyone one hundred percent sane.

"We just need a little cover while we're here in your city," Bones went on. "There's a bloke in the area that could clear everything up, we just need the time to find him without fighting off sodding ghouls every other minute."

"Fine, I'll give you manpower and protection. But I want an introduction to Dracula in return," Eric said, leaning forward his eyes glowing slightly in excitement.

"The only thing you want out of this is to meet Vlad?" Cat blurted with a raised eyebrow.

"_She's_ met him? She's not even a year old and _she's_ met Dracula? And calls him _Vlad?_" Eric truly sounded outraged by this.

"Well, maybe if you didn't have those weird parties in his honor every year he'd be more inclined to meet you. As it is, he's got enough stalkers. Although I can't see why… Pompous pillock that he is…"

Sensing her presence wasn't going to help things along in any way by the way Eric was staring at her in resentment, Cat stepped back. "I'll leave you two to talk business then," she said. "I'm going to the bar."

"Watch your back, Kitten," Bones said, looking back at her over his shoulder. She knew this time it wasn't just paranoia speaking, they'd been ambushed by ghouls too many times to count since they'd entered Louisiana.

She detoured around a group eyeing her with awe, wanting to avoid any awkward fawning, and took the long way to the bar, past the front door. After she went by, a blast of cold air signaled someone coming in, but she didn't pay much attention to it. At least not until the growled "Red Reaper!" came from behind her. She had time to think "oh crap" and then she was being barreled into.

She snarled, more at herself than at the ghoul on her back. How stupid could she be? Bones was going to have a fit when he found out she'd let herself get ambushed so easily. Grabbing the meaty arms going for her neck, she twisted and kicked out, sending the ghoul crashing into the wall. She faintly noticed the panicked sounds around her, but focused her attention on the fact that four more ghouls had come in after the first, one of which was running right at her.

She rolled under a table and came up quickly, using it as a battering ram against the ghoul coming at her. It was barely enough to slow it down, but all she needed was barely, so that was fine. While he was batting the flying furniture out of his way, she ran at him, slipped under a flailing arm to come up behind him and twisted his head off.

That's when people _really_started freaking out. You'd think they never saw a headless ghoul before…

Unfortunately, she didn't have time to savor her victory as another ghoul slammed into her. She grunted at the impact, silently cursing the lack of finesse these guys had. Her spine was going to be all out of whack, vampire healing or not. As random thoughts of a vampire chiropractor skittered through her head, she twisted under the ghoul, and managed to land a punch hard enough to snap his head back. But this guy was big, close to three hundred pounds big, and he recovered quickly. His hands wrapped around her neck, squeezing hard enough for her to immediately feel things starting to buckle and tear in her throat. Man, talk about instant Karma… He was going to rip her head off just like she'd done to his buddy. She grabbed his arms to pull them off, but knew she wouldn't be quick enough

A broken chair leg suddenly burst out the front of the ghoul's neck, causing its eyes to bulge in surprise. Cat, never one to look a gift stabbing in the mouth, used the opportunity to rip his arms completely from his body before he could do any more damage to her throat. Then she grabbed the chair leg and gave it a sharp twist, popping the ghouls head off in a shower of blood and bone.

Free of the attacker, she looked up to thank whoever had helped her out and was surprised to see the busty blond human from the bar, her eyes wide as she stared at the headless corpse. After a second she seemed to shake herself out of it and looked around for any new dangers. Cat approved and did the same, she could hear more fighting going on further away, but from the feeling of satisfaction she was getting from Bones, she wasn't needed over there. She climbed to her feet, drawing the blonde's attention back to her.

"Hi, I'm Sookie," she said, sticking her hand out. Then she looked at Cat's hands, covered in gore and her face tightened, but she didn't pull her hand back. Cat wanted to laugh at the fact her manners had overridden her disgust, but managed to just keep it to a smile.

"I'm Cat," she said, her healing throat making her words no more than a whispery rasp. "And why don't we wait for that until after I've washed my hands?"

Sookie slumped a little in relief and returned the small smile as she dropped her hand back to her side.

Cat had to give her credit - not only did she not panic and come to Cat's aid, but besides being a little pale, she was taking this all remarkably well. When she said as much to Sookie, she got a shrug in return.

"This is just the kind of stuff you have to accept when you hang out with vampires, I guess. I'm used to it by now," she said. She sounded a little sad at that fact and Cat couldn't blame her. Sometimes ignorance really was bliss. But she was also impressed with her - she obviously had some brass balls for this to be something she was used to and she hadn't run for the hills yet.

"You're alright?" Bones asked, appearing at her side in the blink of an eye and checking her over gravely. She could see Eric doing the same to a surprised Sookie to her left and had to smother a grin. It was obvious now that it hadn't been the vampire Eric had been watching so closely, it was Sookie.

"Fine," she rasped, focusing her attention on Bones. She was glad to see he hadn't even gotten a scratch. "What about the others?"

"We took care of them," Bones answered grimly, eyes ticking to the far wall of the club where blood was decorating the walls.

"I didn't even get any on my coat," she heard Sookie saying proudly, cementing Cat's liking for the girl.

"I think there are worse things than ruining clothing during a battle to the death," Eric said dryly, but Cat could spot the amusement lining his words.

"Sorry about the mess, Eric," Bone said, taking Cat's hand and walking toward the couple. "I'll make sure to get Tepesh here even if I have to drag him by that ridiculous beard of his."

But instead of looking victorious at getting his chance to meet Dracula, Eric just looked pissed as he turned his gaze on Bones. Cat tensed, ready for another fight, but after a beat, he finally shook his head.

"Marie will pay for this. She's crossed the line, coming into my place and attacking my-" He paused, shooting a glance at Sookie. "My people. You'll have my full cooperation while you're here. Just make sure that you do whatever it is you're going to do quickly."

Cat squeezed Bones' hand, things were looking up. With Eric watching their backs, hopefully they'd be able to get the Voodoo Queen off their case by the end of the week. But standing there, watching Eric sneak glances at Sookie and while she was completely oblivious to him, made Cat want to stay a little longer. She'd like to be there when she Sookie realized the big Viking was completely nuts about her. Hopefully, when all was said and done, her and Bones would have a new set of friends and not just a contact in Shreveport. Then she could watch the fireworks unfold…


End file.
